A Walk Through Kamata: What An “Unsafe Town” Can Teach About Japan

Kamata – the First Step into Japan

The name “Kamata” should sound familiar if you’ve ever flown into Haneda Airport. However, it was seldom familiar to international tourists prior to 2010, when Haneda Airport became an international hub.

Kamata is in Ota, the southernmost area of Tokyo. When I first came to Japan in 2008, I didn’t even know where Kamata was; it took over an hour by train to get to from Narita Airport. I’m able to do coverages in Japanese now, but at the time, I couldn’t even understand the announcements inside the train.

Kamata is occasionally regarded as

続きを読む